There is often a need to have a stand-alone energy distribution system that is operable while disconnected from a utility grid. While microgrid systems exist for such an application, the pre-existing systems suffer from several drawbacks. Conventional systems run generators continuously, oftentimes outside of the generator's ideal efficiency range. This leads to wet stacking, which wastes fuel and reduces the lifetime of the generator. Additionally, introducing renewable power sources, such as photovoltaic (e.g., solar) systems, into conventional system has the effect of decreasing the generator efficiencies, as the amount of power provided by such systems are not easily anticipated and accommodated for. Furthermore, conventional systems are configured to only accept a single frequency of AC power, and cannot accommodate other generators that produce AC power at different frequencies. Hybrid systems have attempted to resolve this issue by incorporating a battery into the unit, wherein the load is powered by the battery and the battery is primarily charged by the renewable energy source. The battery is charged by a generator when the renewable energy source is insufficient to maintain the minimum state of charge. However, these hybrid systems do not enable capacity scaling, suffer from downtime when the battery falls below or nears the minimum state of charge, and cannot dynamically switch between generator power and battery power without interruption.
Thus, there is a need in the energy distribution field to create a new and useful standalone microgrid unit capable of scaling to increase power capacity.